FOREX-Yen up vs dollar as upcoming G20 meeting has investors wary

* BoE's King and Russian official's comments lift dollar/yen

* Investors likely to be wary ahead of G20 meeting

* BOJ policy meeting ends on Thursday

* British pound hits multi-month lows

By Julie Haviv

NEW YORK, Feb 13 The yen edged higher against
the dollar and euro in choppy trade on Wednesday as remarks from
government officials were outweighed by cautious positioning
ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers
later in the week.

The Japanese currency was earlier weighed by comments from
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, who said the
yen had definitely been over-valued and that "there are no
signs" Japan's monetary authorities were intervening.

Investors have become more confident that Tuesday's Group of
Seven statement was not meant to warn about recent yen weakness.
The statement reaffirmed that fiscal and monetary policies would
not be directed at devaluing currencies.

The yen had rallied after a G7 official said the statement
was meant to signal worries about excessive moves in the yen.
But Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Wednesday said the
statement was a consensus effort and not meant to single out
Japan.

Moreover, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said the
statement should be taken at face value and anonymous officials
should not try to reinterpret it.

"While the comments were supportive of further yen losses,
there is also a general risk-off going on in equities right now
and that is spilling over into currencies," said Greg Anderson,
G10 strategist at CitiFX, a division of Citigroup, in New York.

"It is also a light data week and the next big event other
than the G20 meeting will be Italian elections later this
month," he said. "People still want to get into short yen
trades, so they will wait out this week until it is in the rear
view and go from there."

The euro last traded at 125.48 yen, down 0.2
percent on the day and far from a 34-month high of 127.71 hit
last week.

The dollar last traded at 93.38 yen, down 0.1 percent
on the day and below a three-year high of 94.42 yen on Monday.

"Volatility should pick up again next week and at the end of
month and few want to put on big trades ahead of the G20
meeting," Anderson said.

Investors will likely be wary of selling the yen before the
G20 meeting in Moscow on Friday and Saturday.

"To me the statement says -- as long as price action is
smooth (G7 officials) are not going to do anything. So I stand
by my point that we are going to have more yen weakness in the
medium-term," ," said Vasileios Gkionakis, head of global FX
strategy at UniCredit in London.

He said Unicredit would maintain its long euro/yen position
and target 130.00 yen in three to six months.

The yen lost nearly 20 percent against the dollar between
November and early February, picking up speed as Japan's new
government put pressure on the Bank of Japan to ease monetary
policy more aggressively to defeat deflation.

Markets were also likely to tread cautiously until the
outcome of a BOJ meeting ending on Thursday, although many
expect the bank to hold off from any fresh easing measures until
a new governor takes the helm.

The dollar briefly pared gains against the yen after U.S.
data showed retail sales barely rose in January as tax increases
and higher gasoline prices restrained spending.

EURO RISES VS DOLLAR

The euro traded flat at $1.3448. Some strategists
said the euro also would be largely side-lined before the G20
meeting, although it could come under pressure if euro zone
gross domestic product data on Friday shows the economy
contracting.

The euro has retreated from a 15-month high of $1.3711 hit
at the start of February. It extended losses last week when
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi warned of downside
risks to the euro zone growth outlook.

The British pound, meanwhile, fell to multi-month lows after
the Bank of England said that inflation would stay higher for
longer and its governor cautioned that further bond-buying to
boost the weak recovery might have limited impact.

The economy was set for a "slow but sustained recovery" over
the next three years and economic output is unlikely to surpass
its pre-financial crisis peak until 2015, the Bank of England
said in its quarterly inflation report.

FRANKFURT/LONDON, Dec 9 The European Central
Bank hopes its decision to confront struggling Italian bank
Monte dei Paschi at last will draw a line under a multi-year
crisis that has risked tarnishing its reputation as a credible
supervisor.

Reuters is the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: